Baselworld is only a few weeks away. Getting the latest news is easy, Click Here for info on how to join the Watchuseek.com newsletter list. Follow our team for updates featuring event coverage, new product unveilings, watch industry news & more!

Hi
I am a Canadian in Kingsville-Leamington area across the lake. Can anyone clarify some points?
-we see a signal change on some toledo stations with a better signal in the afternoon and a weaker signal in the evening - are the stations changing their distribution pattern ( can you point me to the web site that shows the patterns - had it a while back but bad bookmarks get me again )
-ch24 all but impossible to get - to at least the hardest of bunch (or so it seems)

We have a directional antenna and rotor and like to watch Toledo ( also get Cleveland & Detroit very well) - since you guys keep sending us the 'good' storms. I think we might be the only part of Canada that still talks in Fahrenheit ( thanks to Toledo weather ) and not Celsius for temperature.

Saw something mentioning Toledo as #73 in USA - if you add us 'missing Cdn viewers' but we could get to at least #72 ..:-)

Thanks for any help offered

Greg H

Hi Greg,

I see you have taken to TV broadcasts as a hobby while we are in "bad ice" season. I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but "Industry Canada" dosen't want signals from the USA crossing the border. It is why Fox Toledo has a directional pattern. Here are the Toledo stations contours, NOTE: the signals do carry beyond the blue line and are for reference purposes. No station in Toledo is "shifting" pattern (like an AM directional array) rather you are probably seeing the result of adjacent channel and on channel interference from multiple market DMA's along with atmospheric ducting.

I need to add an additional DVR to my account with Buckeye Express. It will be my 4th. I have Pace Micros and I think the last one I picked up is a TDC-778X or something close to that. I'm using the WD My DVR Expander with that one which is 500Gig which is eSATA. This leads me to my two questions.
1) What's the latest model Pace Micro (assuming that's still what Buckeye is using) that they are releasing now for use?
2) Is it still limited to eSATA only drives and a half terabyte?
Thanks in advance.

I was wondering what their latest model was too. I have the 778 right now, but it's been freezing up and giving me audio and video dropouts. I pull the power plug and it will work fine for a day or so, then start freezing up again. I think its time for a new one.

Well it was probably over a year ago now but I was actually disappointed because I occasionally watched it. Instead they replaced it with CNN Headline news which honestly makes no sense because it's a duplicate of the other CNN Headline news in the 40 channel block. I have DirecTV now so the only duplicates I have are The 101 channel placed all over the place.

1) What's the latest model Pace Micro (assuming that's still what Buckeye is using) that they are releasing now for use?
2) Is it still limited to eSATA only drives and a half terabyte?
Thanks in advance.

Well, I got my answer as far as what they are giving out now. It's the Pace Micro TDC-787X with firmware 11.90. Considering that Pace is at 14.XX as usual, Buckeye is way behind in updating their firmwares. The fixes that Linden has listed in the Pace thread are numerous.
It appears also that the maximum is 750GB assuming you can find an external 750G eSATA only drive. That limits it to three that Linden also lists which so far all appear to be out of production and only 500GB. If anyone has had good success with a 750GB drive for the TDC-787X, please let me know what you're using.
Thanks.

Well I'm finally ditching Buckeye. They haven't added any non-premium HD channels in many, many months and I'm sick of waiting. TWC is being installed Sunday and hopefully they've gotten they're act together since I last had them 3.5 years ago. They offered me 2 HD-DVRs and 15mbps internet for for $120.75/month for the first year, then just another $5/month more after that. Sounds VERY good on paper, hopefully the HD channels don't pixellate (sp?) and the internet doesn't cut out like the last time I had it.

Hey guys, i have Buckeye Cable basic, no HD channels, on my 42" Panny... anyways, channels 18-1, 18-2, 18-3 come in clear, but they arent OTA channels, rather, CBS, USA and TNT, all HD... what other channels are available in the -X area that "shouldnt" be? also, what local HD channels will come in?

Hey guys, i have Buckeye Cable basic, no HD channels, on my 42" Panny... anyways, channels 18-1, 18-2, 18-3 come in clear, but they arent OTA channels, rather, CBS, USA and TNT, all HD... what other channels are available in the -X area that "shouldnt" be? also, what local HD channels will come in?

Well I'm finally ditching Buckeye. They haven't added any non-premium HD channels in many, many months and I'm sick of waiting. TWC is being installed Sunday and hopefully they've gotten they're act together since I last had them 3.5 years ago. They offered me 2 HD-DVRs and 15mbps internet for for $120.75/month for the first year, then just another $5/month more after that. Sounds VERY good on paper, hopefully the HD channels don't pixellate (sp?) and the internet doesn't cut out like the last time I had it.

Time Warner Cable has a TON of HD channels, almost every one available (at least they did in the Bowling Green area). They probably have every HD channel available but I swtitched to DirecTV because I was having problems with Time Warner Cables crappy HD DVR. I'm sure they would of replaced it but I wanted to try something new.

I've still got RoadRunner though because it's always been very reliable and fast. TWCs HD channels look pretty good, I never noticed any extreme pixelization, only mild the only way to get virtually no pixelization is blu-ray. The HD doesn't look as good as DirecTVs but it's also compressed differently and it's very close.

Is NFL Redzone insanely compressed for anyone else on Buckeye? The grass on the fields is literally one giant block of artifacting, and long shots are so terrible you can barely make out the fans. Is it like that on every provider?

I was watching the post game show on Fox while I was waiting for The Simpsons and it looked really smooth looking and not sharp at all. The Simpsons just started and it look's just as good as it ever did. Did anyone else even notice?

I was watching the post game show on Fox while I was waiting for The Simpsons and it looked really smooth looking and not sharp at all. The Simpsons just started and it look's just as good as it ever did. Did anyone else even notice?

Fox's 720P is just awful. Football looks nasty in 720P, Try switching back and forth between CBS 1080i football and Fox 720P in real time. My 76 year old mother was shocked at the PQ difference.

The Simpsons is a cartoon. That is all that 720P should be used for.

Compare 13's 720P news to WGN 1080i news. Not even in the same universe of PQ.

Fox's 720P is just awful. Football looks nasty in 720P, Try switching back and forth between CBS 1080i football and Fox 720P in real time. My 76 year old mother was shocked at the PQ difference.

The Simpsons is a cartoon. That is all that 720P should be used for.

Compare 13's 720P news to WGN 1080i news. Not even in the same universe of PQ.

Well I would defiantly say WGN is of much higher quality, but 13 ABCs HD broadcasts don't look that grade, although it is pretty good. If you compare WGNs 1080i news broadcast to Fox News Channels 720ps broadcast, it's much more comparable.

I've never noticed Fox's HD looking that bad before, I mean the guys were just sitting there talking and it looked really bad, even the non-animated commercials during The Simpsons looked much better.

I was watching the post game show on Fox while I was waiting for The Simpsons and it looked really smooth looking and not sharp at all. The Simpsons just started and it look's just as good as it ever did. Did anyone else even notice?

Sure, lots of viewers.

FOX's pre and post game studio programs for live sports are not native 720p HDTV, and never been HD. They are 480i upconverted to 720p. This is a long standing situation and well known here at AVS.

Redzone is only available in HD (on Buckeye at least).It looks great on my tv..

I see nothing has changed on this forum... You guys think that HD is just plug & play...well it is not. I am changing my facility over to HD, which means everything down the line needs re-worked, re-bought and re-designed. Like I have said in the past, HD is still in infant. For example, one major network this NFL year is shooting full 16x9, not protecting for 4x3. So 3 (4?) years into the NFL being HD, networks are just starting to shed the SD monkey. Hang in there, we're working to get things back to a happy standard.
What you guys should be complaining about is show & spot producers sending programming via FTP sites. The non-standard files, compression gone mad files all needing transcoded, resulting in lousy PQ on your expensive sets... all so they don't have to pay for HD/Optical media costs. How ironic...
I noticed one advertiser has gotten away from FTP transmission (if you will) because their spots looked so bad. Trust me, it's like watching composite VHS in long play. Here's a hint at which ones may be FTP'd. Watch a commercial, try reading the fonts. One may be clean, but check the line above or below, it will have an interlaced look to it. It will drive you crazy that this crap is airing after all the money all of us have spent on our systems.

Was Pawn Stars originally unconverted? I'm watching one of the early episodes on the History channel and the guide says the original air date was 8/30/2009. The picture is very fuzzy looking and so is the text but the History channel logo and the commercials are clear as they should be. Is there something wrong here?

Was Pawn Stars originally unconverted? I'm watching one of the early episodes on the History channel and the guide says the original air date was 8/30/2009. The picture is very fuzzy looking and so is the text but the History channel logo and the commercials are clear as they should be. Is there something wrong here?

No. Not sure what you watched but every episode I have ever seen looks pretty good (I am am fussy).

Unlike channel 13's pseudo HD. ABC 720P looks as bad as the old 480P Fox widescreen. Just dump it and go 1080i.

Anyone else notice or are having issues with their dvr , when recording some programs, cutting off the end of the program early and even sometimes starting a program late? Been getting worse lately. I got the Pace 787x dvr. I'm not talking about when a show runs over (like a football game or something).

Anyone else notice or are having issues with their dvr , when recording some programs, cutting off the end of the program early and even sometimes starting a program late? Been getting worse lately. I got the Pace 787x dvr. I'm not talking about when a show runs over (like a football game or something).